This is an interesting case.
First: "Attorney General Eric Holder last year outlined a three-pronged justification for targeted killings of a U.S. citizen who is a leader of al Qaeda: The suspect must pose an imminent threat, capture must be infeasible, and the strike needs to adhere to applicable war principles."

Hmm...
Imminent threat: IE People are going to be killed if we don't take him out. Same justification for killing a US Citizen(or anybody else) within the USA without trial.
Capture Infeasible: See the first sentence.
Adhere to applicable war principles: We would have already bombed his ass if he wasn't a US Citizen.

Now, avoiding the legality and ethics of drone strikes in the first place, I do not consider this to be an unreasonable standard. Delving INTO the ethics of drone strikes, I'd hope that all three criteria are applied to every considered strike, no matter what citizenship the potential targets(and collateral damage) hold. In addition, 'adhere to applicable war principles' probably leads to fewer bomb drops in my mind than what the administration might like.

Roughly speaking, it means that I don't consider 'US Citizen' some special category requiring extra-ordinary measures to NOT target for killing in war if said citizen is waging war against the USA. Instead I demand that such extra-ordinary measures be standard, no matter the nationality of the target. Of course, I recognize that politics will always be a concern. Hitting a British or German national in the Middle East for working with AQ will probably always involve at least a 'heads-up' call to the leaders of said nation.

You're both correct and both incorrect.

In the USA the average TV is replaced at about
six years old. It used to be longer.

I might consider my TV obsolete, but it's not so bad as to require replacement yet. Same with my computer. Going by family history what tends to happen is that the main TV in the living room gets replaced by a bigger/better one, then the old TV there moves downstairs to the family room, that one ends up in a bedroom, etc...

My environmental training goes basically 'reduce, reuse, recycle, only then discard.

As such, I think there's serious issues with this case. Even if they end up discarded rather than recycled, from what I've read recycling is often not all that 'environmental', due to the pollution and waste caused by the act of collection and recycling. Reuse avoids the expense of tear-down and rebuild, and is thus often cheaper*.

Worst case I think is that the stuff ends up stored in a dump until it becomes economical to extract again. There's plenty in things like computers that is rare enough that it's higher density in computers than in the original ore, so once you pile up enough of it to justify the expense of installing a processor in the area, it's easy. Making it easier yet would be that there are large deposits of rare elements in Africa that could be a stimulus.

*Plastic vs glass bottles is one counter-example.

I looked up the fuel consumption for 100% power. But you're right about the trailer, though I'd say that the extra wind resistance matters more than weight for highway travel.

Also, yes you're crazy if you're buying the generator yourself unless your usage pattern is really, really weird. Something along the lines of you're going to use it as a generator where you're going as well.

Takes closer to 5 actually. But if you take breaks like recommended by the experts to prevent the human side from becoming exhausted at superchargers and take sit-down meals you'll have more than enough charging time to make it.

That depends on the scale of the outsourcing. Let's say a company owns or leases 3 cars. It doesn't make sense for them to do the maintenance themselves, so they outsource it to another company for less because THAT company enjoys economy of scale by maintaining hundreds of cars, from dozens of different companies and individuals.

Now expand the company and change it's field of business. Rather than 3 cars, it has over a hundred. Let's say a police department or taxi company of fair size. Now it makes sense to have it's own maintenance garage for at least the common stuff. Due to the miles these professionals put on a vehicle, each one is being pulled in for at least an oil change every couple weeks. When you're doing 10 oil changes a day, you're looking at a full time employee doing just that*. Time to look at hiring somebody.

*Now yes, a full time employee would be expected to do far more cars at a lube joint, but I'm picturing said employee doing everything - keeping track of miles and maintenance schedules, pulling the vehicle from the lot to the maintenance area, changing the oil, clean & wash it, then return.

Google maps says the distance between the two is 249 miles, which is less than the 265 miles of EPA range for the Model S 85 kWh vehicle.

Going to plug share, I'm seeing 7 public charging stations within a few blocks within Columbus. Assuming you stop for lunch to give yourself a 'top up', just park at 52 W Gay St, paying $.75/hour for parking and use the J1772 plug. You'll either get 7.7 kW or 19.2 kW. Even the 'low power' case works out to less than 10 cents/kWh and gives you another 27 miles of range. If it's a higher power outlet it would give you 68. It takes a 120kW+ supercharger to give you near-gasoline level 'fillups', all you need is a range boost.

Oh yeah, and if you get an efficient diesel generator you're looking at using 14 gallons for that 455 miles of range, giving you 32.5 mpg, which while it isn't great, isn't bad either. You're also 'getting' 51 mpg over the entire day, which is excellent, and you can reduce consumption further if you can do ANY electrical charging.

I did the figuring quite a while ago, but you only need about a 15 kW generator assuming you're going to plug in at night.

Target range: 720 miles (60 mph average speed over 12 hours)
Model S range: 265 (85 kWh battery)
Necessary extension: 455
Mileage: 38 kWh/100 mi
Generation capability: 173 kwh/12 hours = 14.4 kwh, or a 15 kW generator. You can buy them for around $3k.

Add a couple thousand for putting it into a trailer form with extra storage, larger gas tank, and such and you're looking at around $5-6k for a generator trailer.

I don't object to what you're saying, just that I object when the dealers get laws enshrining their business model. If Tesla doesn't want to play that game, they should be free to do so.

Tesla might eventually be forced to go to the independent dealer model, but I think we need to let them try their experiment. Hell, restaurant chains like McDonald's works with a mix of franchise and corporate owned stores, why not car dealerships?

Also, with places like Amazon I'm a lot less likely to be buying only 1 thing from 1 manufacturer while I'm there. A car purchase(other than accessories) is likely to be the only thing I do at the dealership. The scale is just so much larger there.

Like I said "make you wait for your vehicle to come from the factory"

With emphasis on 'YOUR' vehicle with the options you want.

Can you explain how economy of scale allows for this to be profitable with 'a few thousand' vehicles, but not with a hundred times that? Assuming that Tesla remains a premium car brand, of course. The model E(or whatever it's name ends up being; I understand Ford forced them to change it's name) might not get quite as good service.

They have ONE model currently in production, the S. The X has been delayed while issues with the door are worked out, to my knowledge you can't find any on display in common areas. They probably have a few prototypes on display, but that's it. They also have the historical roadster, which isn't really compatible with their current technology.

That's mainly because Tesla has all of ONE model of car with 3 trims and the ability to make you wait for your vehicle to come from the factory. Most of the major automakers have at least ten models with at least one line where you have more than three engine choices. Heck, I've seen vehicles where they offered more than six different trims(and a pain in the butt system for figuring out the differences).

On the other hand think about how wasteful the dealer model is with Dealers having to *guess* what kind of vehicle and options you want, then stocking that. Good luck in the USA if you like Manual transmission vehicles in anything but sports cars or econoboxes, and it's tough even there.

If car manufacturers were capable of being more agile, the two month wait for a new car that completely fits the customer's wants could be the norm, with used car lots and slightly longer term rentals satisfying those who find themselves in need of a different vehicle quickly.

No they don't. That's just mostly how the current companies handle it. Safety recalls have happened with Tesla. They've simply used company techs to do the work by picking the vehicle up from your house/work if the fix can't be done on the spot, sometimes delivering a loaner vehicle.

Also, much like repair shops working with lots of insurance companies, there's nothing except laws preventing a car manufacturer from simply paying any qualified shop for doing the work.

I specifically noted that I was keeping the trim levels the same. The Tesla model S isn't competing with honda civics.

Yes, it sucks that hybrids and other such vehicles are generally only available in premium trims.